Pan
by iamdlai
Summary: A modern-day retelling of the classic Peter Pan story.


It was the grandest, most extravagant party Wendy had ever seen. All three floors of the mansion were covered in a sea of people coated with champagne-colored confetti that rained endlessly from the chandelier-fraught ceiling. Everything was lit by the soft glow of golden lanterns and the twilight streaming through massive french windows that stretched fully from the first to the third floor, 30 feet high and spanning the entire wall. Outside, a series of glowing aqua blue pools connected by miniature waterfalls ended abruptly in a breaktaking view of a valley of twinkling lights and the ocean bay.

One boy, ignoring the frowns thrown his way by the string quartet playing a few feet away, was blowing haphazardly on a large brass tuba. The tuba conveniently covered what wasn't by the boy's lack of clothes. His small audience didn't seem to mind the tuba player's nakedness, perhaps because of the stream of alcohol that erupted from his tuba into their open mouths each time he hit a particularly high note. In another corner, girls in sparkling fairy costumes giggled as they piled quivering jello shots on top of a half-asleep boy, undeterred by the fact that he ate the jelly as soon as they placed it on his body. One of the horses had broken loose from the carriages. It was prancing through the pool, a shimmering white thing with silver tassels in its mane and a horn tied half-heartedly to its head. A drunken girl attempted to climb onto the horse's bare back, only to fall off clumsily as the horse shied away.

Inside, aerial ribbon dancers twisted in their silver rings, synchronized with the pulsating dance music. Scantily clad dancers gyrated on podiums, beckoning at the partygoers below with their peacock feathers.

Wendy stood on the winding staircase between the second and third floor. She leaned back against the wall, allowing a gaggle of revelers to walk by. She ducked as one of the girls, dressed in a fluffy, sequined blue dress with a yellow bird beak fastened on her nose, threw her drink in the air, splashing the wall where Wendy's head had been with its contents, something pink and strong-smelling.

Wendy shook her head at the man offering her a silver tray of caviar. The eerie, dance music reverberated in her ears, but she couldn't bring herself to join the dance floor. Why was she even here? She had almost chosen to ignore the strange invite. Now, watching the revelry, she wondered if she belonged.

She looked up to where the staircase ended at the fourth floor, which extended into an interior balcony facing the french windows and overlooking all three stories below of revelry below. The entrance was roped off, blocked by a 'VIPs Only' sign and a massive, surly looking man, perhaps all the more surly because, in addition to his suit and tie, he had been made to wear rabbit ears and fuzzy white tail.

In the plush shadowed confines of the VIP balcony Wendy glimpsed the elite of the night in matching costumes of forest sprites, subtly clad in glittering green fauna or disguised and animal limbs. Even from far away, Wendy could see that they were beautiful people, the sort of beautiful that turned heads, that made her feel more out of place than ever. At their center, their star: a breathtakingly lovely boy with a makeshift crown of green tinfoil leaves lounged bare-chested in a chair, a bored, haughty smile on his face.

His eyes roved the room for entertainment, and settled on a group of people pleading with the surly rabbit guard for entrance to the balcony. There were two lovely girls, so similar they could have been sisters, their gold sequinned swimsuits accenting their impossibly long willowy figures and brought out the gold in their hair, which tumbled out from under crowns of deer antlers all the way down to their hips. With them was a boy dressed as a hunter.

The crowned boy prodded one of his companions and nodded towards the entrance. The companion, a tall, powerful looking boy in squirrel mask. laughed and shouted at the guard, who stood aside to allow the group in The deer girls gleefully waltzed in, and headed straight for the crowned boy, arranging themselves on either side of him and rewarding him each with a kiss on the cheek. But the crowned boy's attention was on their male compatriot. He shouted something at the hunter that must have been distressing, as it was followed by some amount of shouting. But when the rabbit guard came and put a hand on the hunter boy's shoulder, he waved him off, and nodded at the crowned boy. Looking resigned, the hunter boy began what appeared to be a strip tease for the occupants of the balcony.

Rolling her eyes, Wendy turned away. Whoever the party VIPs were, there was exactly zero chance of her getting in. She was neither stunningly gorgeous, nor willing to make a fool of herself-not that she was even capable of being as entertaining a fool as the hunter boy.

Wendy looked out over the party and wondered again why she was here. Her train of thought was disrupted by a large clanging sound. Look to the sound Wendy saw an upended silver tray and macarons strewn across the ground, a sea of pink, green, and cream-colored confections. A caterer was frantically picking up the mess, as a drunken boy munching on the handful of macarons in his hands apologized out of the corner of his mouth, emitting a spray of colorful wet crumbs in the process, then stumbled after his friends down the stairs.

Crouching down, Wendy began picking up the macarons.

"Oh no, miss, you don't have to-"

"It's OK. I have nothing better to do. It's not your fault when drunk people at a party start knocking everything over. Do you have any napkins?"

"Yes, but they're back in the kitchens, and if my boss see this mess and no one cleaning it up…"

"Why don't you go back and grab the napkins, and I'll keep cleaning up. Really, it's not a problem."

Throwing a thankful look at Wendy, the caterer rushed down the stairs in the direction of the kitchen. Wendy began methodically picking up the macarons.

"Now, why are you sober enough to be cleaning up at my party?"

Wendy turned and stared deep into a mesmerizing pair of forest green eyes, smiling at her beneath a tumble of tousled auburn hair, a crown of green tinfoil leaves perched on top.


End file.
